From the Arctic tundra to the vast floodplains of Brazil and Indonesian peatlands, wildfires that tend to move below ground are burning up huge stores of carbon and threatening to worsen global warming. In the Arctic, 2024 is shaping up to be the worst fire year since 2020, when blazes burning across Siberia for several months consumed 8.6 million acres of tundra and sent emissions surging to a record. A subarctic forest fire outside the village of Berdigestyakh in Siberia. Photographer: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images US President Joe Biden will use his final address to the United Nations General Assembly today to champion the value of alliance-building, even as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Israel's war against Hamas have tested the limits of his foreign policy doctrine. He will pitch collective action as the solution to emerging concerns, from climate change to artificial intelligence and synthetic drugs, administration sources say. Russia plans to maintain military spending at a historic high in 2025 and sees only slight declines in the following two years as President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine shows no sign of ending. Draft budget proposals show the government intends to increase defense spending to 13.2 trillion rubles ($142 billion) next year from 10.4 trillion rubles projected for 2024, putting it at 6.2% of gross domestic product. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa told his Chinese counterpart yesterday that Beijing must act to protect his nation's citizens within its borders, following the stabbing death of a 10-year-old Japanese boy in southern China, and deal with "untruthful and malicious" internet posts targeting his country. Ties between the neighbors were already tense due to historical resentments, a territorial dispute and Japan's release of wastewater from a destroyed nuclear power plant. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is leaving his successor a volatile currency, tepid economic growth and the widest budget deficit since the 1980s. But the most urgent challenge Claudia Sheinbaum will face is calming investor fears that the outgoing leader's overhaul of the judiciary will remove checks and balances on the ruling Morena party and erode the rule of law. Hungarian European Affairs Minister Janos Boka told Bloomberg Television that the European Union's asylum policy is nearing a breaking point as opposition grows in other member states. Egypt said it sent military aid to Somalia, the latest show of support for the Horn of Africa nation embroiled in a feud with neighboring Ethiopia over a breakaway territory. Zambia's democracy may face greater scrutiny after President Hakainde Hichilema suspended three Constitutional Court judges with immediate effect yesterday, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights last month expressed concern over multiple allegations of authorities making arbitrary arrests. Italian government officials are growing frustrated at Germany's opposition to a potential takeover of Commerzbank by Milan-based UniCredit, threatening to disrupt the delicate diplomatic relations between Berlin and Rome. |
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